What nation was in the location, and who lived there, before it became "Israel?"?

The land has changed hands many times. Just before becoming Israel, it was controlled by Britain but occupied by the Palestinians. The land was given up after World War II for the purposes of creating a Jewish homeland. There were already many Jews living there, however, as the notion of a Jewish homeland—and the thought that the current location of Israel would be a good place for it—did not come about solely as a result of the Holocaust.

It was part of the Ottoman Empire up until the First World War and was inhabited mainly by Arabs with a minority of Jews though I was surprised to read in Wikipedia that in the 19th Century Jews were the largest population group in Jerusalem. The British created the state of Palestine after the First World War this included modern Israel, the West-Bank, Gaza and Jordan. The British also created Mesopotamia at this time which later became Iraq.

@flutherother The British didn’t create Mesopotamia. It is considered to be one of the cradles of civilization and is as ancient as that would imply.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia

The Kingdom of Iraq was founded in 1932 and before that was part of the British Empire.

The British Balfour Declaration in 1917 stated “His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

This was followed by the 1922 Palestinian Mandate by the League of Nations. But after WWII the Jewish population demanded independence from the British, and fought for it. The UN approved the creation of the State of Israel, but in the meantime fighting between Jews and Arabs escalated.

In May of 1948, the British left, and the Jewish agency, led by David Ben Gurion, declared the creation of the State of Israel. In May of 1949, an armistice was reached with a defined border.

Efforts to partition the land for Palestinians and Jews met resistance from both sides.

@flutherother Jews, zionists, had begun buying up lots of property in Israel, even before the UN decision.

@diavolobella From whay I understand Iraq was probably a screw up by the Brits, because there are three very distinct groups in Iraq. Correct me if I am wrong here. Probably would have been better to have three countries I am thinking.

@diavolobella Mesopotamia is very ancient but the political entity known as Iraq is quite new and was created from three provinces of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. Mesopotamia just means ‘land between the rivers’ and has never been a country as such though it seems Iraq was sometimes called by this name before independence.

PS The Babylonian Empire did include most of Mesopotamia at one time.

You’ll notice that basically all former European colonies were, at the time of “decolonization”, split in such ways as to pit different ethnic or social groups against each other, often playing up already existing tensions. Take what’s going on in Sudan with their vote to split the south from the north, and the previous decades of civil war. Doing this tends to keep places under other forms of influence from their former colonial rulers, which is generally called “neo-colonialism”.

Israel was a state founded exclusively on Terrorism by extremely ungrateful anti British Zionists. Using the exact same methods as Al Qaeda. They are indistinguishable, except for the fact that Al Qaeda operatives at least have the decency to die along with their often, civilian victims. Well i say, ungrateful, Britain didn’t really give up Palestine to the Jews, in a spontaneous act of uncharacteristic generosity, Britain offered sanctuary and immigration channels but on the understanding that Britain was still the Boss and In return the American Jewish lobby would help secure American intervention in WW1. Notice the Date of the Balfour declaration 1917 and American arrival in the European theatre, 1917, often portrayed as the cavalry arriving just in the nick of time, to save their Anglo allies.

Anyways, the upshot of all this, is the tiny region we have come to know as Israel has become the epicentre of a Geopolitical shit storm, that forever threatens global stability. Not to mention the source of inexhaustibly tedious arguments involving Zionist fascists trying to explain, to a wholly unconvinced world, in American accented and flawless English, that they are nothing like their Historical Nazi persecutors with respect to their treatment of the Palestinians, and that Hamas is a far more horrific terrorist group than they are.

@SavoirFaire the Jewish immigration started going to Palestine before WW1. It was NOT a gift the world gave the Jews after they’re persecution during WW2.

Read more here:
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_oppose_immigration.php

The entire area was Palestine. The Jews settled in someone else’s country and broke more treaties than just about any other settling Imperial power.

@cazzie I strongly recommend reading what I wrote again. I was quite clear that the Jewish immigration started before the Second World War and that the land was occupied by the Palestinians regardless of who the League of Nations thought legally controlled the land.

@SavoirFaire I was answering the poster of the question. Not you. Sorry.